Metro workers on strike -- image via Unifor on Twitter
3,700 Metro grocery workers have been on strike in Ontario since July 29 and they need our solidarity. Workers from 27 stores in Toronto, Brantford, Orangeville, Milton, Oakville, Brampton, North York, Islington, Willowdale, Mississauga, Etobicoke, Newmarket, and Scarborough are demanding a just deal from the company and wages they can really live on.
“This decision to go on strike comes after years of these workers being nickelled and dimed while facing increased precarity and eroded job quality. It comes after having pandemic pay stripped away. It comes at a time of record profits and soaring CEO compensation. It comes at a time when life has become simply unaffordable for so many of these workers who risked their health and safety during the pandemic,” said Lana Payne, Unifor National President.
According to the CBC in "2022, Metro's net earnings were $922 million, the highest profits the company has ever recorded in its history."
Meanwhile "Michelle Charles says she has worked six days a week at the Metro grocery store in Brantford, Ont. for the last 19 years" says she can't even afford to shop there and had to sell her home of 27 years to make ends meet.
Metro was one of the grocery chains that disgracefully cut the pandemic "hero" pay boost of $2 an hour in 2020 and workers want it back as an issue of basic fairness.
Justice for Workers is calling on people to show their solidarity on Wednesday, August 9 by joining a picket line, sharing a solidarity selfie, putting up posters in their neighbourhoods and contacting their MPPs.
You can learn more details and find out where the picket line nearest to you is at: Day of Action to Support Metro Workers - Justice for Workers (justice4workers.org)
As they note if "Metro workers win, it makes it easier for all frontline workers to demand better wages and working conditions. We all need good jobs in our communities — that's why are doing everything we can to help these workers win."
